


Octopus Wars

by Yggdrasil_Hugger



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Cephalopods, Cuttlefish, Empire, Found Family, Multi, Octopus, Prophecy, Speculative Evolution, War, squid - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27273184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yggdrasil_Hugger/pseuds/Yggdrasil_Hugger
Summary: There is a prophecy, of a mighty warrior that will unite the tribes and kingdoms. They will usher in a new era of peace, ceasing the blood wars. Then they will take their armies and destroy the throne. Only after the seas wash black with blood can there truly be peace.2,000 years after Humans have abandoned Earth, cephalopods rule the seas. From within his palace in the Great Barrier Reef, Emperor Nero wages war against the southern Trench Kingdoms, while the Humboldt Tribes lead raids on his eastern border. There are even rumors that he attempts war with the strange black birds of the surface.To Tatsavi, all of this seemed so far away. He’s spent his life on the Undulating Fields, tending crabs he’s never tasted. But after one fateful day when he faced down a shark and lived, he’s suddenly whisked away to the capitol to meet the Emperor. The Emperor wants the mighty warrior that bested a shark as a personal guard, and Tatsavi can’t help but agree.While in the palace, however, he stumbles onto a plot to overthrow the throne. He is faced with a dilemma: prove his loyalty to the throne that kept him starved and poor, or wage war on the largest kingdom in the sea?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Octopus Wars

_Gather ‘round, children, and I shall tell you the tale of how the first two octopus came together to defeat a threat far greater than their fear of each other._ The nursemaid flashed to the gathering youngsters. They were a rambunctious lot, seemingly intent on zooming about the small space as fast as they could. However, they always fell right in line when the nursemaid began to spin her tales.

_It was long ago, when the seas were smaller and the land-creatures still walked. Tsundhi and Magave lived in this very reef, though they kept their distance from each other. When the land-creatures walked, octopuses would live alone, never socializing beyond a greeting or a fight.  
_

_Tsundhi and Magave never fought, but they never greeted each other, either. Each would stay on his side of the reef, Tsundhi hunting crabs and Magave opening clams. Until the day the shark came to the reef._ At this, the younglings turned a pale yellow of fear. Sharks were the most dangerous thing in the sea. They would sneak into reefs and eat anything they could fit inside their mouths. And octopuses fit nicely inside the mouths of hungry sharks.

_Each knew the dangers of the shark. The black-tipped fins and gnashing jaws were more than enough to keep them hidden. It did not take long for the reef to become a quiet, dead place. It was then that Tsundhi came to Magave. Tsundhi came not to fight Magave, but to talk to him. Magave, hesitant at first, soon grew to enjoy Tsundhi’s company. The octopuses made an agreement then, to track down the shark that had besieged their reef and kill it._

_Tsundhi, the crab hunter, knew the strength of clubs. To fight crabs is to risk their snapping claws, and to fight sharks is to risk their snapping jaws. In Tsundhi’s eyes, they were one and the same. Magave, the clam eater, knew the benefits of blades. Clams keep their shells shut tight, but a knife to pry open their shells cuts sharkskin just as well. They conspired for days, creating a plan to kill the shark.  
_

_Tsundhi wanted to attack quickly and without mercy, beating the shark with his coral club. Magave wanted to sneak up on the shark, cutting at it with his knife. After three days and nights of planning, they finished their plan. They would wait until night, when the shark was blindest, and attack the creature as it patrolled the reef. Tsundhi would beat it over the head while Magave would stab at its eyes and gills. And so the plan was set.  
  
On the fourth day, they sprung their attack on the shark. It was the night of Inksky, when the blind eye of the sky closes fully, and the sea was darker than ink. The shark was blind, but Tsundhi and Magave were familiar with the reef in all the ways a shark cannot be. They made themselves as dark as the sea and attacked. Tsundhi sprung first, jetting from the sand with his mighty coral club. He hit the shark so hard, many of its teeth fell from its mouth.   
_

_Magave sprung next. Brandishing his knife, he slashed the shark in the eyes, leaving it blinder than before. But sharks do not need eyes to hunt, and it attacked in response. Clasping down on Tsundhi, it shook him greatly, but the clever crab hunter escaped through the gaps in its teeth. He attacked once again, determined. The battle raged for hours, until dawn was finally painting the waters orange. In one final blow, Magave drove his knife through the shark’s eye and into its brain.  
_

_After many hours, the fight had been won. The two octopus celebrated. They had destroyed the threat. The reef soon returned to its vibrant state with the creature defeated. But Tsundhi and Magave’s journey was not finished there. They went on to find more octopus, teaching them the ways of fighting sharks. That was not the only thing learned that day, however. After that, octopus grew accustomed to each other, and our great kingdom was founded._

By this time, the children had settled down considerably, nearly lulled to sleep by the nursemaid’s tale. With a slight pink flush, the nursemaid began to distribute small portions of fish to the children, who gobbled them greedily.

* * *

Tatsavi looked across the Undulating Fields. At this edge, the Fields stretched on to the horizon. The vibrant seagrass waved with the currents, as crabs stalked the fields, picking for scraps. Tatsavi sat perched on a post of the fence that kept the crabs from wandering off the Fields. The crabs eyed him warily, but he didn’t move. Crabs were primitive creatures, and responded to threats with their pincers. 

Not that their pincers were a problem. Tatsavi wore thick clothes of kelp that rendered the sharp claws useless. Inside this protective suit, his normally bored-green skin was beginning to twinge yellow with annoyance. Two of the crabs had gotten into a fight, snapping at each other. If they continued, they might just kill each other, and Tatsavi wouldn’t be getting paid. He jetted over, pulling his crab knife from its sheath. 

The crabs fled as he shot over them. Even after millennia being domesticated, they are still distrustful of octopus, and rightfully so. If Tatsavi had his way, he’d eat crab for every meal. He’d only had crab once, a small one that had gotten killed during transport, but it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. _No wonder the nobles need so much of it, they must eat it all the time_ , he thought. He descended on the dueling crabs, waving his knife and turning the one exposed part of him red. The crabs didn’t like red, and a red octopus got them to stop fighting 9 out of 10 times. This was the 1, apparently, as they ignored him and continued to scrap.

He began to wrap his tentacles around one of the crabs’ legs, intent on pulling it off of the other one, when out of the corner he spotted something swimming his way. _Probably a fish_ , but it didn’t swim like a fish. It swam with a lazy sort of purpose, like it knew what it wanted and that it was inevitable. It was far too large for a fish, even a grouper. He turned to look and froze with fear. _Shark!_ His every nerve told him to swim, to ink, to hide, to do _something_. 

He slithered off of the crabs, who continued unknowing of the impending threat. He flattened himself against the seafloor, turning the same color as the sand, but with his kelp suit on, he was still a huge target. The shark continued forward, and Tatsavi felt a cold wave of terror. He squeezed out of the suit, leaving the vague shape of an octopus on the seafloor. Once again he pressed himself against the seafloor, and the shark hesitated. 

But only for a moment. Tatsavi vaguely remembered that sharks could hunt even without eyes, and cursed. The shark continued forward. For a half-second, Tatsavi locked eyes with the shark, and despite his camouflage, turned dark purple in fear. The shark’s eyes were nothing like octopus eyes. They were all pupil, cold and empty. As the shark grew closer, Tatsavi couldn’t help it. He squirted a dark cloud of ink and jetted into the seagrass. The shark seemed unfazed, and gave chase. 

Tatsavi slithered through the grass, pulling himself along with his tentacles. He never stayed still, always pulling himself in a new direction. The shark seemed confused, but always found Tatsavi anyways. For moment, Tatsavi thought he had lost the shark, but the blunt nose of the predator slammed into his side, sucking in two of his tentacles. Tatsavi barely felt it when the deadly-sharp teeth cleanly removed them. Black blood seeped from the stumps, and Tatsavi turned a sickly yellow. Then his fear turned to anger. _Just who does this shark think it is? I tend crabs for a living, and missing tentacles ain’t shit. If that’s the worst it can do, I’ll show it what it means to be a crabber._ His yellow body shifted into vibrant orange, and his remaining tentacles reached for their crab knives. 

He drew the knives from their sheaths, writhing in anger. Blades flashed in the midmorning sun. With lightning-quick whips of his tentacles, he buried the knives in the snout of the shark. This time, red blood leaked from the shark’s wounds. Tatsavi felt a sick sort of joy as his knives slipped into the shark. The shark spun in fear and pain. It advanced again, but Tatsavi was done running. He dodged the next attack by the shark, and slashed at its gills as it went by.

Tatsavi jetted after the shark. He latched onto the side of the shark and set about stabbing the shark in the eyes as many times as he could. The shark thrashed as Tatsavi attacked. _Crab-sucking, oyster-biting, remora-wearing son of a trench!_ he thought as he attacked. His skin was pulsing red and orange with rage now, and with a final push, slipped his knife and about half of his tentacle into the shark’s head. He twisted once, twice, and a third time, and the shark stopped moving. It slowly sank to the seafloor, and Tatsavi slid off with exhaustion. He looked up to see a small crowd had gathered.

The crowd looked at him looking at them, and suddenly burst into a variety of colors. They lifted him up and carried him off the Fields. They carried him through town, cheering for him in greens and blues. They dragged him into a small coral cave, where three other octopuses were sitting, quietly eating a bioluminescent algae. Tatsavi subtly fell asleep, exhausted from his ordeal with the shark. 

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! Author here, I just wanted to clear some things up. This is a story about cephalopods, and the main character is an octopus. All of the other characters will be cephalopods, unless the scientific community decides squids belong in a different group for some reason. 
> 
> Cephalopods are deaf, and I will be taking special care to never describe something in audible terms. That’s why all dialogue is in italics and described in colors, as that is how cephalopods communicate now. However, if I ever make a mistake, feel free to yell at me.
> 
> This is a work of speculative fiction, and is how my (fantastical) brain imagines how cephalopod culture would work. Some groups will be based on human groups, both because I think it works, and to paint a clearer picture of how that group works. For instance, the Empire is based on the Roman Empire, with a Caesar and everything. However, if I get something wrong you do not have my permission to yell at me, either because I’m basing it on a more theatrical version or I just think cephalopods wouldn’t do it that way.
> 
> Sometimes I’ll include a song or two that is just a human song wholesale. If I include it, that’s my vibe for the chapter, and it would be great if you listened to it while reading. 
> 
> You may be wondering why I’m putting this on AO3, a fanfiction site, and not something like Wattpad. Well, truth be told Wattpad isn’t a good place for me. I have a... history... with the site, and just dislike the community that festers there. And although AO3 is a fanfiction site, it also holds a great amount of Original Works. And yes, while it’s on the site it can taken by a company and used for something, I don’t particularly care. This is a story about octopuses. If I ever get good enough at 3D animation maybe I’ll abandon this and make it into a show on YouTube, or maybe I’ll be hired by Netflix or whatever. The point is, for now it’s just for fun and if somebody makes a profit off of it, good for them. 
> 
> Anyways, that’s all for now, later skaters.


End file.
